Beauty, Mercy, Justice

Fare Thee Well, 2012

I won’t list all the awful things this year has brought to the wider world, nor even to this nation. You are familiar with the litany. That the final days of the year were overshadowed by the horror of the Newtown atrocity only seems fitting: a dreadful end to a dreadful year.

And it was a rough year personally, not least because my bride’s mother died unexpectedly a few days before my mother finally, after a long drawn-out ordeal, surrendered to death.

We are still reeling from that one.

I thought as I prepared my year-end post that I would go back to last year’s final post. To my surprise I was rather optimistic. That is because at the time- does it seem possible?- the Occupy movement was in the ascendency and it looked like Americans were waking up to the reality of economic disparity, a reality 30 years in the making.

That movement, of course, has fizzled, though it did have some impact; Obama’s moderate populist message during his reelection campaign was no doubt influenced by it.

I also saw that the Labor movement was revived, newly empowered by the defeat of Ohio’s attempt to erode collective bargaining. Since then, of course, Labor has had some setbacks: the defeat of the Wisconsin recall effort and (especially) the hijacking of Michigan by a gerrymandered state legislature, making the most Union of the states into a “right to work” state. (“Right to work” really means “right to work for union wages without contributing to the union”.)

But I look in vain for much good in the past year. I guess we can be thankful that we are not hearing the words “President-Elect Romney”, though hearing the words “President Obama” is only a very relative good (and many would disagree even with this.)

And hey, the wonderful film Beasts of the Southern Wild was realeased. And our baby is now two, which means he is talking, which is always a delight. Nothing like a talking baby.

And I am ever hopeful; perhaps the new year will bring blessings. I certainly pray it does, to the whole world, the entire nation, and to you and yours.

As I did last year, let me begin by offering my favorite prayer, the Litany of Peace, from the Divine Liturgy:

–In peace let us pray to the Lord.-For peace from on high and the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.-For peace in the whole world, the well-being of the holy churches of God, and the union of all, let us pray to the Lord.-For this house and for those who enter it with faith, reverence, and fear of God, let us pray to the Lord.-For all the bishops, priests, deacons, clergy, and people, let us pray to the Lord.-For our public servants, for the government and all who protect us, that they may be upheld and strengthened in every good deed, let us pray to the Lord.-For our city and every city and country and the faithful living in them, let us pray to the Lord.-For favorable weather, an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord.-For the travelers by sea, air, and land, for the sick, the suffering, for the captives, and for their salvation, let us pray to the Lord.-For our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, and need, let us pray to the Lord.-Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and protect us, O God, by your grace.

-Remembering our all-holy, spotless, most highly blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, with all the saints let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God. Amen.

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13 Responses

Can I really be ending 2012, a year when I finally hit $78,000 in earnings, unemployed, depressed, broke and grieving for my wife’s father, as well as being in grave doubt as to the legitimacy of the American federal government and the intent of this president AND the opposition party to uphold the Constitution?

Yes I Can. Good riddence to 2012, too bad I see many of the negative changes you brought as being permanent. A government that can force contraception on women and their employers to pay for it today to reduce miinority populations, is a government that will be bombing Salt Lake City tomorrow and will reduce the minimum wage to slavery when the Republicans gain power again.

We join you in saying “Good riddance!” My father-in-law and my mother both passed away after long, difficult illnesses. We are literally left to pick up the pieces and figure out what to do next. Lord have mercy on us all!

Let us remember that we are still in the feast of the Nativity – today is the last day of the Byzantine post-festal days and the 7th of the Western Church’s Twelve Days of Christmas. Christ was born in a much darker time and a much more hopeless and brutal political landscape, but the seed was planted and continues to grow.

I believe historical/political progress is a pendulum that swings back and forth but keeps ratcheting up. Occupy has receded a bit from its first frenzy, but Occupy Sandy and the Strike Debt campaign have shown that the organizing muscles that were built last year are still working and capable. It’s way too early to call it a wash – all historical reform movements ebbed and flowed, (were declared failures many times before they succeeded), but raised consciousness and gained organizational resources in the process. I have hope that the Republican anti-labor extremism is going to result in the same kind of backlash as their anti-immigration extremism did four years ago, and lead to the same political punishment the received for that this year.

As for this year, we’ve cemented a cornerstone of universal health care and now we have the joyous task of pruning the dead wood and growing the good heart of that institution. If the Amish could get out of Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes then surely we Catholics and conservative Christians can get out of the contraception mandate if we work together and are willing to bear the (relatively light) cross of civil disobedience where necessary, as the Amish did in securing their religious priority. Also, if I look around the world, it’s hard not to be excited about the changes in the Middle East. Syria and Palestine are grave tragedies right now and much horror accompanied the reforms in Lybia, Egypt, and Tunisia and it’s possible the new regimes will be worse than the previous ones, but the move toward democracy and freedom appears to have begun and I doubt it will reverse. And in Europe collapse seems to have been averted while at the same time the austerity hawks are being rejected.

Although I think it is naive to hope that Obama will be more bold now that he has no reelection to worry about, I can’t help hoping he will return to his 2008 agenda of closing Guantanamo and continuing out withdrawal from the wars in the name of terror. We’ll see. But if looking at the big picture worldwide and domestically I would not have predicted as much positive change in 2012 as I saw and I have hope that 2013 will be even better. Either way, Christ is born.

@Zeb- universal health care is based on the death and euthanasia of poor and minorities and the terminally ill. It is an evil, not a good.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the so called “relatively light cross of civil disobedience” will include drone strikes by the government on US Soil before 2020. The law means nothing now- Obama has proven that he isn’t bound by law and order.

Democracy and freedom is just the right to destroy justice and destroy your neighbors when you are the elite. Nobody is giving the unborn the right to vote.

Obama WILL be more bold- but all that means is that he’ll open more political prisons, declare Catholics and other pro-lifers to be terrorists, and fill them up in preparation for the genocide.

Political progress has been going backwards since 950 A.D., and will continue to do so.

Since 950 AD, huh? What? You miss having slaves? Or you pine for those halcyon days of the 9th century, when popes regularly poisoned their predecessors?
Your contention here is as stupid as your contention that universal health care is based on euthanasia.
I have long tolerated much freedom in the comboxes; the only post I ever deleted, aside from spam or obvious trolling, was an angry vulgarity addressed to another poster.
However,as you are compelled to comment on just about every post, your irrational presence has become intrusive, and it makes my blog look ugly.
So: from now on you will be reasonable and charitable, or you will be deleted. Note that I do not mind strong rhetoric, but draw the line at calling people “murderous” when you do not know their hearts, or irrationally contending that EVERYTHING about the modern world is evil while the Middle Ages were some sort of utopia.
Got it?

Hmm. 2012 was probably the best year of my life so far. Urban homestead, communal living, challenging work, lots of learning, jam, mead, eggs, new friends, brief romances, careful exploration of things previously taboo (though some of them, it turns out, were taboo for a good reason), damn good music, and dancing. Lost a couple of family members too, but that’s what friends are for, to hold you up through such difficulties, and grow closer while you’re at it.

On thing I learned this year: it helps to accept that the nation as a whole is going to the shitter and divorce yourself from it except for the month or two before an election when paying attention becomes absolutely necessary. Focusing energy on my immediate surroundings (workplace, neighborhood, home, etc.) where I can actually make a difference has been extremely empowering for me and others.

Most of what is wrong with America, can be summed up by your experience: exploring that which is taboo, because we are so bad at passing on tradition that we have forgotten why it is taboo. Usury, homosexuality, gluttony, arrogance, lust, war, euthanasia, abortion, even our music is the way of rebellion.